He really knows how to play the field. He's a great catch. He won't drop the ball on making a love connection...

Prepare to be inundated with sports clichés, as ABC kicks off the fifth season of The Bachelor in the season's upcoming final rose ceremony.

In a new game rule, Palmer gets some pass protection from a secret spy, a player who appears to be a bachelorette, but who is really there to provide the QB with a scouting report on the women's true intentions and locker-room behavior. There's also a new "first impression" rose, given to the women who makes the best first impression on Palmer, the usual round of group and one-on-one dates, trips to meet family and friends, and, in the premiere, a rose ceremony where Palmer says he makes a "terrible mistake." Oooh...

But that love fumble aside, and given his reference to a missus, does Palmer end the season engaged?

His lips are sealed, but ABC must be hoping that his love match scores ratings and helps improve the series' won-loss percentage. Out of four installments of The Bachelor and one season of The Bachelorette, the show's record is 4-1. Only Bachelorette Trista Rehn , says he signed on to be this season's Bachelor because he was looking for a serious relationship with someone more interested in him than in his career.

"One of the things that was appealing about doing this show was the fact that I had a chance to meet 25 women who were going to be beautiful and successful, with careers and all of that, but at the same time they didn't know who I was or what I did when they signed up," Palmer told the Star-Telegram. "I think that was probably the most appealing thing about doing this."

And about that list of potential "missus"-es, the lineup includes Debbie, 27, a massage therapist from Georgia; Holly, 26, a banker from Oklahoma; Jenny, 24, a professional skater from Michigan; Jessica, 25, an attorney from Texas; Mandy, 25, a professional soccer player from San Diego; and Julie, 24, a California native and former NFL cheerleader. The last one makes you wonder: Did Palmer really need to go on a reality TV show to meet an NFL cheerleader?

The only Canadian QB in the NFL, Palmer may ultimately end up more famous for being on a reality-dating show than for his football skills, but he's already infamous with his Giants teammates, who are joining him for a party to celebrate the show's two-hour premiere.

"I am getting ribbed a little bit. I'm sure it will only get worse. But it's been a lot of fun and the guys are really excited. It will be interesting to see what happens. What it's probably going to be is a Jesse Palmer roast by the time the whole thing's done," Palmer said. "I'll probably have a lot of pictures stuck on my locker.

"And I'll probably get tied to a goalpost at some point in the next two months."

So this month’s “Bachelor” is Jesse Palmer, whose leading credential is that he is the “NFL quarterback of the New York Giants,” as ABC likes to say. But as with so many things on network television, especially ABC these days, that is subject to change.

Indeed, as reporters learned last week in a conference call with Palmer, who was promoting tonight’s two-hour premiere of the new series of “The Bachelor” at 8 p.m. on Channel 9, his days in the nation’s largest television market may be numbered.

Palmer, a backup to the Giants’ starting quarterback Kerry Collins, may have unrestricted access to the 25 young women strutting their stuff before him and a national TV audience. But in the world of professional football he is known as a “restricted free agent,” meaning that he could be with another team as soon as late April.

The Giants have offered him $627,689 for next season, barely enough to cover the rent in New Jersey and lease payments on an H2. The Sporting News cut to the chase in a team report last month: “Backup Jesse Palmer is not expected back,” it wrote.

And no, the Giants aren’t impressed with Palmer’s status as America’s most eligible. Management and players there are still cooling down from “Playmakers,” a dramatic series on ESPN (owned, as is ABC, by the Walt Disney Co.) that made football players out to be a pack of drug-addicted, homophobic, racist losers.

One of the team’s stars, Tiki Barber, openly criticized the show. ESPN killed “Playmakers,” but that reportedly hasn’t made team executives any more thrilled about Palmer’s involvement with “The Bachelor.” Asked about the situation, Palmer would say only that management had asked him not to do anything that would embarrass the team — or, perhaps, the ex-team.

Oh, right, like the producers of a TV reality show would even think of letting an embarrassing moment make it onto network television. Are you kidding me? How does “Cincinnati Bengals backup quarterback Jesse Palmer” sound to you?http://tv.yahoo.com/news/tvb/20040407/108138793200.html

I said this before, and it is becoming my battle cry for The Bachelor (Which I DO NOT Watch because of the people they select):

Oh, yes, because we all know how damn hard it is these days for a "working" man that gets paid more than a half million a year to find a woman! It is just such an un-justice for these men to be single! Lets give him a TV show to find a woman, and hopefully, and I mean hopefully, he will get popular enough that they raise his pay so he can afford his own small island and marry all 25 women.

Lets have a Bachelor game for this guy. From what this guy picks to wear, I am SURE he doesn't have a wife to help him out.!

Ok, but most of the time when I watch my favorite reality tv shows, I usually have a few beers... (sinner) so I may not remember all the way ... I could update you from the internet though and give some feed back?